How serious is a Contempt of Parliament charge? The penalties for contempt of Parliament can include prison time.

On March 25, 2011 the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was found guilty of contempt of Parliament by a jury of his legislature peers.  Contempt of Parliament is defined as the act of blocking the House or any Member of Parliament from performing their duties.  Is this a serious offense?  The penalties for contempt of Parliament in Canada can include prison time.  A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.  If an act of contempt of Parliament can include prison time then Stephen Harper could have received a punishment of prison time as a legal penalty for the commission of the crime.  Instead of prison time, Stephen Harper’s title as prime minister of Canada and all privileges, immunities, and powers attached to the title of Prime Minister were revoked by the House of Commons.

In Canada the power to find someone in contempt of Parliament goes back to the British North America Act (BNA). The BNA defines it as the privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed but not to exceed those explained by the Act, or those enjoyed by Members of Parliament.

The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and organization. The governor general summons and appoints each of the 105 members of the upper house on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, while the 308 members of the lower house are directly elected by eligible voters in the Canadian populace, with each Member of Parliament representing a single electoral district.

Per democratic tradition, the House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament, the Senate and Crown rarely opposing its will. The Senate, thus, reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint, and the monarch and viceroy provide the necessary Royal Assent to make bills into law and summon, prorogue, and dissolve parliament in order to call an election, as well as reading the Throne Speech.

The House of Commons, but not the Senate, can be dissolved at any time by the Governor General, conventionally on the advice of the Prime Minister. If the government is refused confidence or supply, the Prime Minister must either resign and permit another member of the House of Commons to form a government, or else advise the Governor General to dissolve Parliament. In parliamentary systems, a dissolution of parliament is the termination of a legislature at the call of an election.

In a parliamentary democracy confidence and supply are required for a government to hold power. A confidence and supply agreement is an agreement that a minor party or independent member of parliament will support the government in motions of confidence and appropriation (supply) votes.

In most parliamentary democracies, members of a parliament can propose a Motion of Confidence or Motion of No Confidence in the government or executive. The results of such motions show how much support the government currently has in parliament. Should a motion of confidence fail, or a motion of no confidence pass, the government will usually either resign and allow other politicians to form a new government, or call an election.

On March 25, 2011 a call for the resignation of Stephen Harper to lead Canada as prime minister of Canada was unanimously (majority vote) made in the Canadian House of Commons.  The call for resignation was made after a special committee of the House of Commons investigated Stephen Harper and a number of Conservative Party members for criminal acts committed that violated Canadian election laws.   Members of Stephen Harper’s government were subpoenaed by the House Committee to testify and give evidence demanded by the House of Commons Committee for their investigation.

A subpoena is a formal document that orders a named individual to appear before a duly authorized body at a fixed time to give testimony. A court, Grand Jury, legislative body, or Administrative Agency uses a subpoena to compel an individual to appear before it at a specified time to give testimony. Legislative investigating committees also issue subpoenas to compel recalcitrant witnesses to appear.

An individual who receives a subpoena but fails to appear may be charged with Contempt of court and subjected to civil or criminal penalties. In addition, a person who has been served with a subpoena and has failed to appear may be brought to the proceedings by a law enforcement officer who serves a second subpoena, called an instanter.

Members of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government refused to comply with the demands of the House subpoenas and as a result a vote was taken by the House and Stephen Harper’s government was found guilty of contempt of Parliament.  The House of Commons punished Stephen Harper by forcing him to call an election.  The House of Commons could have ordered Stephen Harper to serve time in prison as punishment for the crime of contempt of Parliament.  Instead they gave Stephen Harper and at least four members of his Conservative Party who were charged by Elections Canada for violating Canada’s election law (Sen. Doug Finley, Sen. Irving Gerstein, Michael Donison and Susan Kehoe) a slap on the wrist.

Stephen Harper, Sen. Doug Finley, Sen. Irving Gerstein, Michael Donison and Susan Kehoe are all out campaigning for the same jobs they were fired from.  They are all now seeking the opportunity to commit more acts of corruption against the Canadian people and their Parliament.

Is it fair to Canadians that Stephen Harper is once again being allowed to run for the office of prime minster of Canada when he was judged by our elected members of Parliament to be corrupt (contempt of Parliament) and incompetent (non-confidence vote) to hold that office?

Even though the House of Commons didn’t give Harper what he truly deserved, prison time, voters like you can pass judgment on May 2, 2011.  According to a Facebook message from a pro Conservative Party reader – “Ultimately it will be the people of Canada AGAIN (4th time in 7 years) making the verdict and doling out any sentence.”

Still don’t think a contempt of Parliament charge is serious?  If it wasn’t serious then we wouldn’t be having another election.  Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, Elizabeth May and Gilles Duceppe wouldn’t be on the campaign trial trying to gain enough votes to become prime minister of Canada.  As a result of an investigation and vote the minority government of Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party cabinet ministers were dismissed and Parliament was dissolved.  Their dismissal was based on a contempt of Parliament charge being made and passed (by a majority vote) against the Conservative government of Stephen Harper by the Canadian people’s elected members of the House of Commons.   This unequivocally declares that a contempt of Parliament charge is a very serious charge.  So serious that Stephen Harper and members of his Conservative government were dismissed, forcing an election to find a new law abiding Prime Minister of Canada and cabinet ministers.  This is the 1st time in Commonwealth history that a government has been judged to be in contempt of Parliament.  For the first time ever in the history of Canada and in the hundreds of years of the British parliamentary system, a government, the Harper Conservative Government, has been found in contempt of Parliament.  That alone should show everyone just how serious a charge of contempt of Parliament really is.

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